Okay. You just carefully loaded your dirty dishes in a pattern where the sprayer arm in the dishwasher reaches evenly. You pressed the start button and waited for your dishwasher to complete its cycle. The dishwasher has run its course; good. The dishes are now ready to use.
But only then do you discover your clean dishes have this nasty smell like rotten eggs or sulfur. Many people suspect that the smell is coming from the dishwasher, blaming the age of the machine, the dirty drain filter, or food particles that are stuck. If your dishwasher itself is smelly, then they might be the culprit. However, if you can’t detect any foul smell inside the dishwasher but your dishes smell, then it might be the water that’s at fault.
If you live in a region where its water has high sulfur content, the smell of the water may have been transferred to the dishes. After all, you’re drenching the dishes in sulfur-rich water. I almost vomited when I used the egg-smelling cup to drink water, and I tried so many things to fix the problem. I, too, thought it was the dishwasher at first. I did everything I could to clean the dishwasher – nothing improved. I moved on to using harsher detergents that are scented (think Cascade or Finish). They somewhat solved the problem as they were great at masking the scent, but from time to time, I detected the smell and it was even more unpleasant, mixed with the citrus scent from the dishwasher detergent.
Finally, I came to the conclusion that it was the quality of the water my house had. If you have hard water and seem to be having the same problem as I had, please use a rinse aid and salt. If you must choose between the two, add salt.
I had my Miele dishwasher for many years, and it never occurred to me that I needed to add salt to my dishwasher. Most dishwashers, including the one from Miele, have designated salt slots on the bottom of the dishwasher. They are usually by the bottom sprayer arm and feature a turning mechanism.
Salt helps with softening the water, which is absolutely crucial for a clean dish smell. If you get soft water in your house, great, you’re lucky. But if you’re not, try adding coarse salt into the designated salt slot.
You will notice the difference immediately. As soon as I added salt, the lingering eggy smell disappeared. I now use a very mild, environmentally conscious detergent that is unscented, and my dishes come out clean WITHOUT the foul odor. Yay!
I purchased a box of Salt from Miele.
You get 1.5kg of coarse salt. And I mean coarse. The granules are huge, much larger than regular coarse salt you’ll find at grocery stores. These extra-coarse granules keep the salt from dissolving too quickly. At first, I thought it was like regular salt, so I gasped at the price – typically $15 per box. According to Miele, this salt is “reactivation salt” that helps to reactive the water softener in the machine and therefore prevents scaling.
In my case, I poured in the entire box – super convenient. No measuring, nada!
This salt will improve the efficiency of your dishwasher immensely if you have hard water. And it will also help with the odor because the salt acts as a natural water softener. You can fill the salt easily using the funnel provided by the manufacturer. If your dishwasher has a built-in salt slot, it should come with a funnel-like tool.
To aid the washing cycle, I also add rinse aid.
It is super helpful if you want your dishes and pans to dry without white water marks. Any rinse aid will do because the chemical reaction is essentially the same. I’ve been loving this rinse aid from Miele because it’s unscented, and for that, it gets a higher mark. And Miele’s rinse aid has an opening that is better performing than that from Cascade.
This red cap only releases the liquid when you press the bottle, preventing the liquid from spilling. It’s a significantly better design than regular bottle openings because I can never pour it precisely through the rinse aid slot in the dishwasher, and I always end up wasting a ton.
Miele’s rinse aid doesn’t spill out unless I squeeze the bottle.
A renowned stemware company, Riedel, strongly recommends Miele products, too.
After months of trying to pinpoint the problem, it was water, after all. If you get soft water or have a water softener in your home, great. But if you don’t and have been constantly battling the eggy smell that mysteriously arises out of nowhere, try adding salt and rinse aid. They might surprise you.
Okay. You just carefully loaded your dirty dishes in a pattern where the sprayer arm in the dishwasher reaches evenly. You pressed the start button and waited for your dishwasher to complete its cycle. The dishwasher has run its course; good. The dishes are now ready to use.
But only then do you discover your clean dishes have this nasty smell like rotten eggs or sulfur. Many people suspect that the smell is coming from the dishwasher, blaming the age of the machine, the dirty drain filter, or food particles that are stuck. If your dishwasher itself is smelly, then they might be the culprit. However, if you can’t detect any foul smell inside the dishwasher but your dishes smell, then it might be the water that’s at fault.
If you live in a region where its water has high sulfur content, the smell of the water may have been transferred to the dishes. After all, you’re drenching the dishes in sulfur-rich water. I almost vomited when I used the egg-smelling cup to drink water, and I tried so many things to fix the problem. I, too, thought it was the dishwasher at first. I did everything I could to clean the dishwasher – nothing improved. I moved on to using harsher detergents that are scented (think Cascade or Finish). They somewhat solved the problem as they were great at masking the scent, but from time to time, I detected the smell and it was even more unpleasant, mixed with the citrus scent from the dishwasher detergent.
Finally, I came to the conclusion that it was the quality of the water my house had. If you have hard water and seem to be having the same problem as I had, please use a rinse aid and salt. If you must choose between the two, add salt.
I had my Miele dishwasher for many years, and it never occurred to me that I needed to add salt to my dishwasher. Most dishwashers, including the one from Miele, have designated salt slots on the bottom of the dishwasher. They are usually by the bottom sprayer arm and feature a turning mechanism.
Salt helps with softening the water, which is absolutely crucial for a clean dish smell. If you get soft water in your house, great, you’re lucky. But if you’re not, try adding coarse salt into the designated salt slot.
You will notice the difference immediately. As soon as I added salt, the lingering eggy smell disappeared. I now use a very mild, environmentally conscious detergent that is unscented, and my dishes come out clean WITHOUT the foul odor. Yay!
I purchased a box of Salt from Miele.
You get 1.5kg of coarse salt. And I mean coarse. The granules are huge, much larger than regular coarse salt you’ll find at grocery stores. These extra-coarse granules keep the salt from dissolving too quickly. At first, I thought it was like regular salt, so I gasped at the price – typically $15 per box. According to Miele, this salt is “reactivation salt” that helps to reactive the water softener in the machine and therefore prevents scaling.
In my case, I poured in the entire box – super convenient. No measuring, nada!
This salt will improve the efficiency of your dishwasher immensely if you have hard water. And it will also help with the odor because the salt acts as a natural water softener. You can fill the salt easily using the funnel provided by the manufacturer. If your dishwasher has a built-in salt slot, it should come with a funnel-like tool.
To aid the washing cycle, I also add rinse aid.
It is super helpful if you want your dishes and pans to dry without white water marks. Any rinse aid will do because the chemical reaction is essentially the same. I’ve been loving this rinse aid from Miele because it’s unscented, and for that, it gets a higher mark. And Miele’s rinse aid has an opening that is better performing than that from Cascade.
This red cap only releases the liquid when you press the bottle, preventing the liquid from spilling. It’s a significantly better design than regular bottle openings because I can never pour it precisely through the rinse aid slot in the dishwasher, and I always end up wasting a ton.
Miele’s rinse aid doesn’t spill out unless I squeeze the bottle.
A renowned stemware company, Riedel, strongly recommends Miele products, too.
After months of trying to pinpoint the problem, it was water, after all. If you get soft water or have a water softener in your home, great. But if you don’t and have been constantly battling the eggy smell that mysteriously arises out of nowhere, try adding salt and rinse aid. They might surprise you.